Taxi Driver Online

This is an official council news release.


Court upholds decision to revoke taxi driver’s licences

https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/news/2 ... s-licences

A court has upheld a decision by the council to revoke the licences of a taxi driver who regularly carried a drug dealer in his vehicle.  

Brighton Magistrates’ Court heard that Bodrul Ali, a licensed Brighton & Hove taxi driver for 19 years, had his taxi driver’s licence and taxi vehicle licence revoked last year.  

This followed the arrest of a passenger in the taxi who was carrying 30 bags of cocaine. The passenger was subsequently convicted of possession of class A drugs with intent to supply.

Examination of CCTV footage from Bodrul Ali’s vehicle showed that the same passenger had been transported on numerous other occasions, making multiple stops across the city. 

The council believed the taxi driver was knowingly transporting the drug dealer and was not a ‘fit and proper person’ to hold the taxi licences.  

Mr Ali appealed against this decision, but in court on 12 December 2022 a district judge dismissed his appeal stating that he had not satisfied the fit and proper test. She found that the conclusions of the council that he was knowingly transporting a drug dealer were overwhelming.  

The judge said the council’s decision to revoke the licences was the correct one in the interests of safeguarding the public and she ordered Bodrul Ali to pay the council’s costs.

Taking action to maintain licensing standards

Councillor Zoe John, chair of the council’s Licensing Committee, said: “Taxi and private hire drivers hold a unique position of trust in the community. The majority of drivers are brilliant and take their responsibilities very seriously, this case was an exception and it highlights that we will not hesitate to take action where a taxi driver falls short of our licensing standards. 

“Safeguarding the public is our priority and we are proud of our high licensing standards in Brighton & Hove. This was a serious case and we are pleased the judge has upheld our decision and dismissed the appeal.”  

Find out about taxi licensing and how to report a problem with a Brighton & Hove licensed taxi.

So this was presumably the driver involved in the stop in the thread below, where the passenger was prosecuted, but the driver's fate was left in the air?

Don't think the driver's revocation has featured on here, or at least his name doesn't appear in any searches.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=37441&p=414380


But a good example of why many drivers don't want a council-managed CCTV system in their car, even if objections are grounded more in terms of personal privacy than the serious criminality here.

And it's also relevant to the question of whether a basic SD-card storage system should be used, or an encrypted hard drive sort of system, that only police and council officers can access. Presumably if it was an SD card set up then then the footage would have been wiped soon as, in fact possibly never recorded in the first place?

I doubt he had thought about it other than it being a good regular earner !

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

But good example of the different standards of proof required by a criminal prosecution on the one hand, and the civil licensing committee process on the other - presumably the driver was never prosecuted for the matter?


But, in that regard, interesting comments from the district judge here. The wording is a bit vague, but if it was the evidence he was transporting a dealer that was overwhelming, then that sounds like it was sufficient to support a criminal prosecution?

(I'm assuming that if he had been prosecuted and/or convicted, then that would have been mentioned above.)

Nobody's that daft, surely?

But re the incident the other night, if the scrotes were locals then presumably they would have known the car had CCTV? And even non-locals, would twig, surely?

But I suppose that if the drivers can't even work out the relevance of CCTV...

I've met a few in my time ! They only see the £ signs and don't believe you when you tell them that if stopped by the police they could be in trouble as well.

Wait and returns to grotsville to pick up supplies were regularly picked up by some drivers although these days there are plenty of dealers locally

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Got to be careful what I say as I know all the parties mentioned in the above article.

This a lesson to us all that the police are not mugs, and drivers doing the couriering are responsible for their own actions, despite what they may think, and the consequences are severe.

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IDFIMH

Not sure the council will be getting much of that back, but well done to them for their actions.

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IDFIMH

Lots of jobs are now being refused by at ranks due to drivers not wanting to lose their licenses.

They have been advised that it's a pattern of pickups that will lead the police to look into it, but that doesn't seem to be getting through.

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IDFIMH

Just noticed that the fella has had his vehicle license revoked as well.

Maybe that's miffed him off a bit more than just his driver's badge.

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IDFIMH

Yes, noticed the plate had been revoked - in effect, a huge de facto fine?

Think of all the money he was making out of running this bloke around the powers that be have made sure crime didn't pay !

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Reminds me of an incident i had. i had a passenger on board who was going here there and everywhere. It became obvious what he was doing so when he ended his journey I went straight to the police station to report all the addresses that I had taken the chap to. The desk person listened to me and at the end said, "so you have been knowingly ferrying this chap around on a drugs run". I replied that when we started i did not know what was happening but the questions continued always with the word "knowingly" so in the end I just told him to forget it as he clearly wanted to make something out of me trying to help.

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Grandad,

Think the driver got what he was due, but I often wonder if in cases like this the plate should be taken.

In other words, is it right that the level of fitness to be a driver is the same as that of an owner?

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IDFIMH

Which is why I always recommend to plate holders to put their spouse on the plate licence as well. Remember the bit in shawshank redemption where Andy Dufrais asked the prison guard if he trusted his wife? The Brighton proprietor could have removed his name from the licence before the council had a chance to revoke it. Wuckfit.

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Former taxi driver